Impact of IMC (integrated marketing Communication) on Consumer buying behavior of Telecom sector of Pakistan

Why this topic: The telecom industry/sector is one of the fastest growing sectors of Pakistan, in which the intensity of competition is very high (five major competitors). All the players are following aggressive competitive advertisement and promotional strategy. But still they are facing the challenge of retaining their customer and developing long term customer relation (loyalty). So that from this study we will measure the contribution and impact of the integrated marketing communication (companies communication mix) on the consumer buying behavior.

Introduction: In the fastest growing telecom sector of Pakistan there are five main players in the field of telecommunication sector and the level of competition is very intense due to this competition. But still the sector experienced remarkable growth in the past ten years. To benefit from the high growth rate the companies much not just sell the products but also have to retain and maintain its customers. As it is included with the marketing process, integrated marketing communication finds and holds its position in every organization. Integrated marketing communications is the process which a company adopts in order to put together and coordinate its messages and media to deliver, clear reinforce communication. As it is clearly stated in the about definition of imc that it is a process through which a company communicates its offering to the final customers and its target market. Various marketing concepts discussed that Imc can significantly help the organization to boosts its performance. In terms of Consumer buying behavior it is
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true that the effective application of the integrated marketing communication can gain the consumers trust and loyalty through providing them brand awareness and creating strong positive brand association. Integrated marketing communication also effect on the consumer buying behavior (how they think about a particular product, what they purchase, how they purchase, when they purchase, from where they purchase)

Objective of the study: To study the relation between the Integrated marketing communication and the consumer buying behavior of the consumers in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. To study how IMC and the consumer buying behavior are correlated with each other. How can we increase the performance of a telecom company by using integrated marketing communication? What the factors that usually contributes to the buying perception and behavior of the consumers?

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Purpose Statement The basic purpose of this study is to develop an interest to study that how integrated marketing communication affect the consumer buying behavior of Telecom sector of Pakistan. This study also gives an overview about the integrated market communication channel of telecom sector of Pakistan and also the consumer buying behavior

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Significance of the study This study will be a significant endeavor in This study will also be beneficial to the students and instructors in marketing management and to understand the relationship between the integrated marketing communication mix and consumer buying behavior, when they employ effective learning in their classroom setting particularly in different concepts related to the use of effective integrated marketing communication to generate a positive consumer buying behavior. By understanding the needs of the students and benefits of quality education, these instructors and students are assured of a competitive advantage. Moreover, this research will provide recommendations on how to use the integrated marketing communication effectively for having a favorable consumer behavior through developing brand awareness and positive and long term brand association of the customer with the brand particularly in the telecom sector of Pakistan.

Moreover, this study will be helpful to the telecom industry and business practitioners in training and informing them in the area of integrated marketing communication. It will also serve as a future reference for researchers on the subject of integrated marketing communication impact on the consumer buying behavior. More importantly this research study will serve companies in telecommunication sector of Pakistan to learn about the factor that usually contributes to the buying perception and behavior of the consumers.
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Literature review
The Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

IMC is considered to be the major communications development of the last decade of the twentieth century. Most organizations even proclaim it as the key competitive advantage of marketing. The Integration of Communications, like anything else, attempts on combining, integrating, and synergizing the different elements of the promotional mix. Its goal is for the messages to look, sound, and feel alike to the consumers, despite the differences of the mixture of mechanisms used in relaying the messages to its consumers. IMC emerged and grew as a result of different factors. First is the movement of the marketing budget below the line, moving away from the mass media advertising. Second are the media explosion and its accompanying fragmentation. Third factor is the degasification and splintering of the market. Fourth is the emergence of the niche and unitary markets, as well as its greater segmentation. The revolution in the information technology, which is still sweeping the world, is the fifth factor. The sixth to eleventh factor are the following: (6) More development of, easier access to, and usage of huge consumer databases that effectively underpin marketing communication of all types; (7) The importance of reinforcing consumer loyalty thru relationship marketing; (8) The importance of building and increasing a brands image based equity; (9) The recognition of the brand as the primary driver of corporate success; (10) The development and diffusion of digital technology; and lastly, (11) The spread of multinationalization and globalism, supported by economic and political means. IMC was here, although the emphasis was on making it effective, rather on what it was. In the year 1990s, a set of studies, most of which are with ad agencies, showed and proved that IMC, in fact, is really effective. It increased the impact of communications, made the creative ideas even more effective, and provided greater consistency on communication. In addition, it also improved the client return on communication investment.

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Therefore, another definition for IMC is that it is a new approach to marketing communications planning being driven by technology, customers, consumers, and by the organizational desire of allocating its finite resources properly. IMC is still an emerging discipline and integration. It is considered as the transition between the old historical product-driven, outbound marketing systems versus the marketplace of the twenty-first century, characterized as being the new information-driven, interactive consumer focused. The Seven Main Elements of Modern Promotion The seven main elements of the modern promotion relates to the IMC concept. Each element has to be consistently coordinated and juxtaposed thru the different medias, in order for consumers to perceive the messages as one message. This is irrespective of the form or media used. The only important element is for communication, via any or all of the promotional mix elements, which then need to be integrated. Advertising Advertising can be a powerful tool within the overall marketing communications mix. It is a dynamic and constantly evolving sector, faced with numerous challenges brought about by the new competitive world of technology. And due to this fact, new means of evaluation for its relative value of contribution towards the overall effectiveness of its communication needs to be found. There are many available techniques in assessing the effectiveness of the advertisement on communicating its intended message, even before the ad is actually shown to the public. Pre-testing is one, in which it identifies the effectiveness of a given advertisement, although it does not guarantee its success in the marketplace. Adidas can implement this, as this is the most common measure used by companies. It will further save the company through the avoidance of huge spending on unproductive advertisements.

Sales Promotion

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Promotion campaigns can be evaluated through a number of methods and measurements. First is the analysis of the sales data and information from the registered purchases. Comparisons between the pre-promotion period, promotion period, and the post-promotion period can also be conducted, as well as the evolutions in sales, market shares, trial, repeat purchases, increased penetration on market, differences by region, etc. In addition, redemption rates can also be calculated for the coupon campaign. Consumer surveys, on the other hand, is a way to test how and to what extent does the consumer recalls, likes, and intends to benefit from the coupons, extra volume, or premiums. It also measures how promotion campaign affects the brand image, as well as the longer-term buying intentions and behavior of its consumer. Experiments can also be designed to pretest the variety of promotion schemes. This can be done thru variations of incentive value, type of incentive, and the distribution and/or advertising media used in finding the most effective among the different types of promotions. Lastly, a sales force feedback can be utilized to give the manufacturer an idea about the impact of trade promotions. All of these measures can be used by Adidas since they have enough budget for it, and it has a lot of advantages on their part. The final choice regarding the combinations and the specific allotment for each, now depends on the managements discretion. Direct Marketing Direct marketing is one of the communication tools in which its effectiveness can be easily measured. The purchasing trends, as well as the differences between the buying behavior of customer segments and even individual customers, can be tracked in detail, using the database information as its basis. And, if integrated with the information on timing and the measured effects of marketing campaigns, it can answer a series of interesting questions. This includes questions on the buyers purchasing frequency and the specific item he is inclined to buy the most, as well as the budget allocated for that purchase. It can also answer questions regarding the effects of their latest sales promotion campaign, as well as matters on customer base and the like. The number of responses in relation to the number of direct mails sent, or the number of orders relative to the total response can be calculated within days or
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weeks after the campaign. Similar thing can be done with the telemarketing campaign or direct response ad. Thru the counting of the number of orders, calculation of their monetary value, and analysis of the customers that placed an order, the assessment of the result of the mail order catalogue campaign is made possible. Pre-tests can also be done prior to the execution of the campaign. One of which is the list testing, where the mail is sent to a random sub-sample of the database that the marketer intends to use. Another is the offer made, which is one of the key success factors in a direct marketing campaign. In addition to this, the creative execution, as well as the copy of a mail or direct response ad, can also be tested. There is also the need for the assessment of the optimal frequency of direct marketing campaigns for various target groups. This is in response to the problem against the loss of valuable opportunities. Marketing Public Relations (MPR) Standard measurements such as recall, awareness, comprehension, or measurements on attitudes can be used whenever proactive MPR is implemented. Take this as an example: after a major MPR-originated news story has appeared, recall of the story and its key points (coupled with correct brand identification) could be measured. After the running of the MPR activity, measurements on the attitude changes towards an organization or a particular product, can now proceed. However, similar to the advertising, there are certain time lags between the MPR activity and the actual sales. Sponsorship The effectiveness of sponsorship campaigns are the most difficult in terms of its measurement. Despite that fact, there is still the need for its measurement. One way of measuring its effectiveness is thru the exposure of the target groups relative to the sponsors brand. This can be done by the registration of the frequency of the exposure of the sponsors brand to the members of the target groups. Next is the measurement of the communication effects of the campaign. The main goal here is to gather relative facts, like how many people are aware of the brand before and after the event, and the like. Feedback of participating groups can also be sought by interviewing the event participants. Lastly, examination of
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the development undergone by the sales and market shares, is another way of the assessment of the sponsorship campaigns effectiveness. E-Communications One of the basic types of measurement for this is the asking for feedback at the website. This can be done by leaving a contact e-mail address or insertion of a form specifically designed for feedbacks. Second are to conduct online or offline surveys. Although more complicated compared to the first, it can gather a lot of information about the customer, like his status, attitudes, satisfactions, and intentions. This information can also be further use for optimization of the website, in terms of information content, service, navigation characteristics, ease of interaction and transaction, as well as the building of customer relationships. Logfile analysis is also useful in terms of tracking and analyzing the behavior of the web surfers. Cookies, on the other hand are used in analyzing website traffics. The effectiveness of online advertising and sales promotion can also be measured thru the number of click-troughs generated, number of interactions effectuated, or the redemption rates of e-coupons.

Relationship Marketing A Regency-Frequency-Monetary Value (RFM) model is used to measure the effectiveness of relationship marketing. Three indicators are monitored for each customer, using this approach. They are the time elapsed since the last purchase, the frequency of the placing of orders by customers, and the average amount of money spent by a customer per purchase. For each variable, a number of categories can be defined, as well as the target group, using past experiences together with the response rates of different categories, as their basis.

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Theatrical framework

Impact integrated Marketing communication on the Consumer buying behavior on telecommunication sector of Pakistan.

Brand Awareness

IMC program

Brand Association

Consumer buying behavior

Satisfaction

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Hypothesis

1. H1: there is an relationship have effect on IMC program in Brand awareness 2. H0: there is no relationship have effect on IMC program in Brand awareness 3. H2: there is an relationship have effect on IMC program in Brand association 4. H0: there is no relationship have effect on IMC program in Brand association 5. H3: there is an relationship have effect on IMC program in Satisfaction 6. H0: there is no relationship have effect on IMC program in Satisfaction 7. H4: there is an relationship have effect on Consumer buying behavior in Brand awareness 8. H0: there is no relationship have effect on Consumer buying behavior in Brand awareness 9. H5: there is an relationship have effect on Consumer buying behavior in Brand association 10.H0: there is no relationship have effect on Consumer buying behavior in Brand association 11.H6: there is an relationship have effect on Consumer buying behavior in Satisfaction 12.H0: there is no relationship have effect on Consumer buying behavior in Satisfaction

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Ethical consideration
With the permission of the respondent, the study will be carried out All the information of the respondent will be kept confidentially. Everything will be explained to the respondent so that he/she cant face any kind of ambiguity at the end. Respondent can withdraw at any time. Objectives of this study will be explained to the respondent. It will be insured that participant would not be forced or disempowered at any step.

Limitations and Delimitations The performance is not only the function of emotional expression but also the function of ability. Emotional expression is a deep context which may be more complex than brand awareness, brand association and satisfaction. And the delimitations are This study is restricted to the communication & SMC. The unit of measure is only employees for the job satisfaction of the brand awareness.

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Reference list: Marketing management, Warrndale PA, Society of managers 1999. http://www.sae.org/fuelcells/fuelcells.htm Jay Pukrushpan, Stefanopoulou, A.G., Peng Huei. (2004) IMC Andrew Library: 621.312429 P979C2004 Pukrushpan, J.T., Stefanopoulou, A.G. & Peng, H. 2004 IMC strategies Society of marketing managers 1999. SG Mark Anthony http://scholar.google.com.pk/schhp?hl=en&tab=ws http://www.yahoo.com/?ilc=8&fr=mkgfacebook.com

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